Pepys' plate

This plate belonged to the famous diarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) and as such is an exceptional personal relic of one of the most celebrated figures in literary and English history. The son of a London tailor and laundress, Pepys rose to prominence as a civil servant of great distinction. His rapid social advancement was reflected in his acquisition of ‘a very handsome cupboard of plate’ and in his Diary on New Year’s Eve in 1666 he proudly confessed that ‘One thing I reckon remarkable in my owne condition is, that I am come to abound in good plate, so as at all entertainments to be served wholly with silver plates, having two dozen and a half’. His enthusiasm for plate, whether gifts or purchases, is indicated by over 70 references in the Diary; not least as a convenient and useful way of utilizing his savings. On 10 February 1662/63 he notes that he had acquired a silver cup ‘with my armes ready-cut upon them…a very notable present, and the best I ever had yet’. The arms in question are those of Pepys quartering Talbot for the marriage of Samuel’s grandfather to his grandmother Edith, daughter and heiress of Edmund Talbot. Pepys also displayed his coat of arms as they appear on this plate on many of the bindings and armorial bookplates in his personal library (now the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge). A stained-glass window dated 1677 at Clothworkers’ Hall in London commemorating Pepys’ role as Master and benefactor is similarly decorated. From its date letter the silver trencher plate was evidently acquired after Pepys closed his Diary in May 1669 fearing its ill-effect on his eyesight. As many of his personal belongings were destroyed in a fire at his home in Seething Lane in 1673, it may have been purchased as he replaced his lost collections. A footed silver salver dated 1678-9 (now in the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1955.298) and a silver porringer dated 1671 (current whereabouts unknown) are the only other known examples of silver from Pepys’ private collection. Both were sold by auction at Sotheby’s in 1931 having descended in the Pepys Cockerell family through Samuel Pepys’ nepher and heir John Jackson (1673-1724), and the marriage of his daughter Frances to John Cockerell of Bishop’s Hall, Somerset. The salver has the same reeded border as the plate and all three items show identical armorials and mantling. The maker’s initials are those of Mary King of Foster Lane, the wife of plateworker Thomas King (3). Following Thomas’ death (his probate inventory, dated 22 February 1680/1 in the Court of Orphans) Mary was cited as a Relicata Sola Executrix and in this capacity, continued Thomas’s trade with the help of an apprentice, John Hudson, and perhaps the journeyman who was owed a quarter’s wages of £5 at Thomas’s death. It is likely that she continued to work as a subcontractor to a number of retailers, including some of those who had owed money to her husband, such as the goldsmith-bankers Thomas Fowle at Temple Bar and James Herriott at Fleet Bridge, Fleet Street, and Charles Wallis and John Gilbert in the Minories. Apart from Hudson, there was a second apprentice serving Thomas King at his death, Edward Parsons, who was turned over to Thomas Minshall. Much is known about Mary King and the inventory provides evidence for the house in Foster Lane and its furnishings.